Be My Escape
by Ceriadara
Summary: Kai Hiwatari is an nineteenth century aristocrat shrouded in mystery. Rei Kon is a foreign, exotic slave who happens to be Kai's birthday present. Yuri Ivanov and Boris Kuznetsov are just troublemakes. KaRe, YuBo Yaoi
1. Chapter 1

**Be My Escape**

_By: Ceriadara_

* * *

Kai Hiwatari is an eighteenth-century aristocrat shrouded in mystery. Rei Kon is a foreign, exotic slave who happens to be Kai's birthday present. Yuri Ivanov and Boris Kuznetsov are just troublemakes. KaRe, YuBo Yaoi

* * *

"I can't take it anymore!" 

Redheaded Yuri Ivanov, third son of the Ivanov family, leaned against a magnificent marble pillar, watching his best friend's frenzied antics as he strode back and forth furiously, shouting at the top of his lungs. He sighed - and here he was, thinking that he was supposed to be the hot-headed one.

"I mean, I do everything exactly the way they demand it of me, and then - THEN, yes, there's MORE! - they have the _nerve_ to say that I have thoughts of _disloyalty_ to the _family?!"_

"He's at it again, hm?" asked a sultry, quiet voice from behind Yuri. Gentle, strong, warm arms wrapped almost tenderly around his slender waist, tugging the redhead away from the pillar and onto something just as firm and slightly softer. Yuri smiled slightly, reaching a hand up to play with a platinum bang.

"Isn't he always, Borya?"

"Hm," agreed the platinum-haired man, green eyes sparkling with faint amusement at his friend.

Yuri looked up as the last teen's frantic pacing slowed to a halt. The slender frame crumpled to the floor.

"What the hell do I need to do to make them _happy?"_

Yuri gently removed himself from the taller boy's arms and made his way over to his friend, where he sat down and took the other's head into his lap, stroking his hair gently.

"Give up all self-will and independant thought," he suggested teasingly, tugging on the dual-toned tips. A lazy hand came up to lap at him half-heartedly.

"Idiot," he huffed. Yuri laughed.

"You're the idiot," he said, poking his cheek, "idiot."

"Yu-uri-i..." he whined, wine-colored eyes turning up to glare into icy blue ones.

"Ka-ai-i..." Yuri replied. Kai sighed.

"I know I should hate them..."

"Yes...but?"

"But I can't because they're my family."

"So they say," Boris inserted, strolling languidly over to stand next to his two friends. "Personally? I think you're illegitimate."

Kai swatted at his friend's legs while Yuri laughed. "Be nice, Borya," he said, wagging a finger at the tall man, who merely laughed.

"Yes, Mama."

Kai sighed, pushing himself up into a standing position. He stretched back, moaning. "Grandfather wanted to see me privately for something."

"I'm sorry, but your grandfather is the weirdest person in your family."

"And you've got a _damn_ strange family."

"Shut up," Kai said, choking back a smile.

"Well, go get dressed nicely now. Wouldn't do for the young Lord Hiwatari to be late."

Taking one last playful swing at his friends, Kai turned and made his way up the marble staircase.

"I worry about him," Yuri sighed as soon as he was out of earshot. "He needs someone in his life...not like us, someone who he can..."

"Someone who he can love?" Boris suggested, draping his arms over Yuri's more slender, smaller frame.

"Yes," Yuri agreed, smiling slightly. He turned his face up expectantly, and Boris did not disappoint, devouring the redhead's lips with his own.

_Someone he can love._

* * *

Lord Voltaire Hiwatari was sitting behind his impressively intimidating oak-wood desk, watching the roaring fire in the hearth, when the large door to his study creaked slowly open. Without turning in his high-backed armchair, he extended a hand in the general direction of another chair closer to the fire. "Please, have a seat." 

"Thank you, Grandfather."

The head of the family watched the youngest heir walk to the indicated chair and sit down. Lord Hiwatari ran an eye over every aspect of the boy - his rimrod-straight posture, his confident bearing, his respectful yet commanding eyes, his well-groomed appearence. He nodded, apparently pleased with what he saw.

"I understand it that your birthday celebrations were held last week?"

"Yes, Grandfather."

His answers were concise and brief; as they should be when answering to a person of higher status. Voltaire inwardly smiled - his grandson was well on his way to great things.

"The festivities were...acceptable?"

"They were excellent, Grandfather."

"Very well. I find, however, that I have neglected to give you a gift."

Kai said nothing.

"However, to make up for the unseemly delay, I have imported something of great expense that will be yours to keep, should you want it."

Kai raised an eyebrow.

"I trust that you will take excellent care of it," Voltaire said, reaching over and pulling lightly on a golden tassle. The large study door creaked open again and two guards, bearing the phoenix crest of the Hiwatari family, entered, bearing between them a slender robed figure. Kai raised another eyebrow.

Voltaire caught this gesture and smiled. "Kai, this is your present. It is entirely dedicated to you and you alone - your first personal servant, imported directly from a small village somewhere in China. We've made sure to teach it all the Russian that it will need to know here. Do what you will with it."

"Yes...Grandfather," Kai said, staring intensely at the dark figure situated in between the two guards.

He had a strange forboding. This creature would bring something different. Just what, however, no one could predict.

* * *

A/N Mragh. 

I dislike this story to the point of hate, and yet I write it. Am I the only one that sees the insanity in this? O-o I'm a strange child.

Yes, this is my first M-rated story. -throws confetti- Rah-rah-rah. Anyway, it is rated M for a reason. There may be a few limes in here, murder, and mentions of rape. If any of these things isn't to your liking...well, I'll warn you in advance in case you don't want to read it. If you're stilkl actually reading this piece of crap at that time X.x

Thanks very much!

Management

(Ceriadara)


	2. Chapter 2

**Be My Escape **

_By: Ceriadara _

* * *

Kai Hiwatari is a nineteenth-century aristocrat shrouded in mystery. Rei Kon is a foreign, exotic slave who happens to be Kai's birthday present. Yuri Ivanov and Boris Kuznetsov are just troublemakes. KaRe, YuBo Yaoi

* * *

_Everything had fallen dark, and it was all that he could do to remember to breathe. _

_The room was suffocating, filled with almost unbearable heat and humidity. _

_He couldn't remember how long he had been trapped inside of this hell – the moments of his capture played over and over in his head, like a nightmare. _

_He saw the swords of the soldiers flashing in the bright sunlight. _

_He watched as his sister dropped her basket and ran towards him, her tiny arms outstretched, reaching – _

_Silver flashed and steel was flung through her back. _

_A crimson liquid fell onto the ground, starkly contrasting the gentle white flowers that lay everywhere. _

_He had frozen, he had not wanted to move, he could not believe it, he **would **not believe it – _

**_She was only five years old -!_**

_He had gone limp in the soldiers' arms, only coming back to himself when he was being shoved into a tight wooden box like some animal. He glanced down to see a child's small, frightened face, and he saw his sister. Ignoring the wetness on his cheeks, he reached out on impulse and took his tiny hand in his own and pulled her close. _

_He felt her heart fluttering against her ribcage – **thumpthumpthump** – quick and darting as a sparrow. He held her close as darkness enveloped them. _

_All sense of time had left him. _

_He could have been in the box for hours, for days, for seconds – all he knew was that the tiny hand in his was clammy, chilled, and falling limp. He leaned his forehead against the rough wood and he sobbed quietly. _

_What was this? _

_

* * *

_

Rei Kon bolted up from his mat on the floor. He heard a ceramic crash and felt a wave of cool liquid wash over his hand, followed swiftly by a sharp stinging pain. Cursing in his native tongue, he glanced over, pulling his hand up.

The small, earthy ceramic bowl was shattered, the water is contained currently soaking his meager "bed", if one could even call it that. He glanced down at his hand to catch a glimpse of bright crimson liquid.

_Li-ying… _

He bit back bile as images of his sister rose in his mind. Swiftly, he tore a corner of his shabby blanket, dipped it in water, and wrapped it around the gash, ignoring the stinging. He'd have to disinfect it, but he didn't have the time now. He needed to get himself together quickly…not that his nightmares were helping.

He ran through the events of yesterday in his mind. He had been removed from the center where he had been sent after the horrible journey, and had been brought by carriage to this…castle, for lack of a better word.

He had been introduced to – and brutally beaten by – a middle-aged man, and shown to an elderly one, who had given his approval. What was their name?

He couldn't remember.

He had been brought to the kitchens and unceremoniously placed under the rather violent jurisdiction of the head cook, Amaliji, who had shoved him into the dirty bathhouses with a rag and a crude bar of soap.

"**кустарник," she ordered him. "Scrub." **

**She had left him, shoving a coarse towel through the door behind her. He had taken advantage of the opportunity, not knowing when he would have another chance to bathe again, and he made the best of the situation he could. He took most of the time to wash his hair – _he really should get it cut, this was outrageous… _- before scrubbing down his body quickly but thoroughly. **

**He had barely finished drying when Amaliji returned, grabbing him harshly by the ear and pulling him to a small, dank room on the second floor of the giant castle-house. **

**"Yours," she grunted, shoving him in and slamming the door shut. **

**He opened the door once he was sure she had gone, and used the little light left in the hallway to catch sight of some matches and an ancient-looking, beaten-down oil lamp, which he lit with quite a bit of trouble. A small, water-filled ceramic bowl rested beside a thin mat, blanket, and tiny pillow on the floor. **

**On the mat rested a nondescript tunic and pants, along with a plain cloak, which he promptly donned. No sooner had the hood slipped over his head than the door was thrown open and he was grabbed by a tense-looking Amaliji, who hauled him down the hall, giving him brusque instructions rapidly as they walked. **

**"Do not look at the masters in the eye. You are nothing to them. Do not speak; nod or shake your head. You will do as you are told. You will not rebel." **

**They neared two rather intimidating oaken doors and a set of two even more intimidating guards. They were dressed in full uniform, bearing a crest of a majestic phoenix. Rei gulped – he knew that crest, and he knew to fear the name that accompanied it… **

**_Hiwatari._**

**The guards flanked him, their weapons at ready, as the doors swung open to reveal a grand, cold study. The older man who had inspected him earlier was seated behind a large, imposing desk. Before the desk, beside the fire, in a tall-backed armchair, there sat a much younger man – one who could not possibly be older than Rei himself. **

Rei caught the very end of the elder man's sentence.

"…care of it."

The young man raised a slender eyebrow, turning blazing crimson eyes to look at Rei, who fought the urge to shiver under the gaze.

The guards watched him apprehensively, as though expecting him to run – but he had no intention of running. The man's stare frightened him, but at the same time, drew him slowly closer, like a small moth to a colossal flame.

"Kai," the elder man said, obviously speaking to the young man, "this is your present. It is entirely dedicated to you and you alone – your first personal servant, imported directly from a small village somewhere in China. We've made sure to teach it all the Russian that it will need to know here. Do what you will with it."

Rei fought the urge to glare at the old man, and kept his head docilely bowed – but not far enough. He made sure, after all, that he could see the young man…

Kai.

"Yes…Grandfather," he said.

Wine-colored eyes stared intensely at him, and Rei felt himself almost grow dizzy at the depths of that gaze. It was like fire staring at him, for just a moment, before the intensity retreated, falling back behind the walls of porcelain skin and two-toned hair.

The guards had escorted him out to the hallway, where he was met by Amaliji, who seized his arm immediately. She dragged him back to his room, nearly throwing him in, informing him that he was expected in the kitchen for six the next morning, where he would be informed of his duties.

* * *

These Russians were decidedly lazy, he thought. Six in the morning? Four was his habitual waking time, and luckily the hellish time in that box on the horrendous journey had not thrown his internal clock off. It was decidedly before six, and Rei decided that he might as well find somewhere peaceful to meditate before he began what was sure to be a hectic day.

He threw on the clothes that had been on his blanket last night – a pair of long pants and a thick long-sleeved shirt, along with his native black slippers. He tied his hair back with a stray piece of rope, pushing his bangs out of his face with some extra ripped cloth from his blanket. It was going to be gone if he kept this up, he mused.

He slipped quietly out of the room, blowing out the dancing flame inside of the oil lamp. He moved along the hallway until he reached a slightly brighter corridor, lined with intricately designed stained-glass windows. He moved quietly down the long stone hall, fading moonlight casting strange colors on the ground.

Reaching the end, he turned to come face to face with a large wooden door. The handle was old, black cast iron, the wood worn down and beaten. Slowly, he pushed it open, almost waiting to hear the hinges creak. Surprised when they didn't, he slid into the room, quietly closing the door behind him.

He marveled at the peacefulness of the place.

It was a walled courtyard, almost sixty feet across, nearly eighty wide. In the center, a tall willow tree grew, its tender leaves reaching up to caress the lightening, star-studded sky. Stones built a wall around its base, boosting it up, a small trickling stream of water nestled amid the roots. Small purple flowers blossomed near its roots.

Pillars, built into the stone walls, were covered in dark green vines. White lilies bloomed in the small, unobtrusive gardens in the corners of the small courtyard. Rei sighed, closing his eyes in momentary bliss.

He marveled at the difference – the stone corridor outside this room had been just as silent and moonlit as this simple garden, and yet the aura of peace resided only beside the willow. Pushing it away, he settled gently between the two largest roots of the ancient tree, closing his eyes in meditation, his back to the wooden door through which he had come.

He was broken out of his meditation when a loud yell rang out in the enclosed space. He leapt up, all senses immediately alert, eyes wide open in order to identify his attacker –

He blinked, lowering his hands as the man opposite him did the same. They stepped quietly closer. There was no sign of recognition from the other, but Rei knew the man – after all, not too many people had such passionate eyes.

He backed off, as much as he disliked doing so, and bowed. "Master Hiwatari."

The man blinked. "I'm sorry…what?"

"You are my master now, aren't you? The whole personal servant business…"

One blink. Two blinks. Three blinks.

It clicked.

"You're…you're my…slave?"

Rei flinched at the word, but nodded anyway. He straightened up as Kai stepped closer, fire-filled eye boring into his own. Closer and closer the Hiwatari phoenix stepped, until their chests had less than a hair's breadth between them. The young man towered over Rei, and the red-eyes looked down to meet his own.

A slender, artistic hand rose to caress tanned skin. "Who…?"

Cool breath wafted over Rei's face, and he fought the urge to close his eyes and enjoy the sensation. Instead, he responded to the man's question, "Rei…sire."

He felt Kai shiver.

That slender hand was at his chinbone now, the side of his neck, the other hand was creeping onto the small of his back, those artistic fingers were playing in the curls at the nape of his neck, he could feel the cool breath on his mouth…golden eyes fluttered shut, and then –

The simple wooden door slammed open, and each man leapt apart from each other as though the touch was fire.

Another man with hair the color of a sunset had burst into the room, cursing so fluently and quickly in Russian that Rei barely caught his words. His pale hands were pushing his bangs away from his face, which was screwed up in deep, angry thought.

He let out an inarticulate roar and slammed a fist into the wall, the cement crumbling beneath his now-bloody knuckles.

Kai moved instantly, grabbing the redhead's arm and holding him back. "Calm down, Yuri!" he bellowed, trying to detain the struggling redhead.

Suddenly, another force burst onto the scene, this one with a head of platinum hair. The shouting rose in volume, and now the redhead was screaming at the platinum-haired man, Kai in the middle of the shouting match.

Finally, he pushed the redhead out of the room and snapped a few choice words at the taller, lankier man of the duo before throwing him out of the room as well.

He slammed the door shut, and, forgetting Rei's presence, sank onto the low stone wall surrounding the tree.

He let his head fall into his hands as he let out a long-suffering sigh.

Rei stepped forward tentatively, settling silently beside the dual-haired man. He spied a trickle of something red running down one cheek, and slowly, slowly, he extended a hand to touch him on the shoulder.

Kai's head snapped up to glare at him before he realized who he was. The stare lessened in intensity, and Rei took a closer look at the man's cheek.

A shallow cut ran from him temple to mid-cheek, along with several other shallow scratches most likely made by fingernails. Rei made a small "tutting" noise with his tongue, unwrapping his bandana-like headband from his forehead. He dipped it in the clear stream of water and gently dabbed Kai's face.

Kai took the rag from him, his fingers brushing Rei's lightly. They both began to rise at the same time, each looking down, each unaware of the other's actions, of their proximity –

They glanced up simultaneously, and their lips met accidentally. Crimson and gold clashed, and tongues traded mouths briefly. Heat meshed together for a slight moment before the stunned participants pulled away.

Hands flew to mouths, "sorry"s were exchanged, and each promptly fled the scene, muttering about something or other that they had to attend to, neither willing to admit just how good they felt.

* * *

A/N Oh. My. Gawd. Y'all.

Okay, so excuses are the refuge of the weak, but I am weak, so deal.

Get this: I had a ten page freaking chapter. TEN PAGES. (This is only six.) And what happens? WHAT HAPPENS?! I run out of memory, that's what happens. Just as this is being saved.

Imagine my joy.

To top that all off, I'm hopped up on cold medicine (Nyquilllll) and suffering from sleep deprivation (my own fault X.x). So yeah. My apologies for the crap chapter.

By the way, you can thank the wonderful, wonderful RussiansNekojinlover for this update – without her, it would not have happened. Go check her out. Shoo, you little suckers.

Review with the comments on awfulness – give me target practice options. I kid, I kid. Review…sorry if I don't make any sense. I get like this when I'm sick. So yeah. Deal.

Much love,

Management

(Ceriadara)

P.S. Made a mistake in the first chappie – I think. Let me know what time period you think this should be in….I shall adjust accordingly. Much love.


End file.
